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My name is Boysie Gordon, and welcome to Boysie Talks Business.
Welcome to episode 17!
In the last episode, I discussed arguably the most important skill a business owner can have… patience. Yes, patience but I want to dig a little deeper in this episode and zone in on delayed gratification. It’s a lost art in our society…
BUT
It has an actionable use case in virtually every part of a business’s infrastructure!
Customer Acquisition
Business Strategy
Motivation
Today, I want to discuss something a little more HR-related—hiring or contracting talent. Most successful businesses start out with a small team, and once they hit their stride, they are forced to expand rapidly.
Most people think of hiring or outsourcing as the solution…
And it is, but if done incorrectly can become a long-term problem.
This advice is also directly applicable to working with clients to—check podcast
Hiring Misconception
When I first started my business, I thought no one would want to work for me.
I was only 24
I didn’t have a degree
My company was still new
I thought, “Who would listen to me?”
This was a mistake.
Truth is, most people just want to work for a place with good benefits, great culture, and excellent management. My company had all that and more.
Two years in, we finally decided to explore the experienced job market. Every candidate we interviewed was more than happy to work for us. And like I had assumed, every candidate was more qualified to be CEO than me.
My misconception held us back for years...
We’d spent a majority of our resources on training entry-level talent
We had a higher turnover rate since working from home brought scammers
Most employees didn’t have the right mindset to work for a startup company
My mindset was automatically disqualifying myself from quality talent and my business suffered because of it.
But there’s something I learned about hiring talent…
Not all experience is created equal!
The Truth About Hiring
The truth is that when it comes to talent, you need to look for expertise and personality fit as well!
The same can be said for clients, too!
Whether you’re working with someone 1:1 or introducing them to an established team, their personality traits need to work in harmony.
Over a 3 year span, we probably onboarded over 13 new faces. It’s always great on the interview, but you never truly know someone until you begin working with them…
Or so we thought!
For so long, we would just take people at face value and completely ignore the fact that most people lie in interviews! No, not when it comes to experiences or the facts, but they lie about what they are really like on a day to day.
Once I finally took off the rosey shades, I began to ask the right questions.
Questions about personality
Questions about past situations
Questions about potential situations
I had an interview process that grade employees on their fit and qualifications.
4.5 and above was a stud.
The first person we hired with was a 4.6 turned out to be an absolute beast!
Showed immediate results and instantly assimilated with culture and company values!
4.4 and below was a no…
I still hired two people below a 4.5 against my better judgment…
The rubric was right about both!
One was scamming us out of a paycheck, and the other just couldn’t learn the material or produce results.
SO key here, whether you are hiring, outsourcing, or onboarding a client…
Set your standards and ask the right questions.
Thanks for stopping by!
P.S.
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EP. 17 I Started My Company and Hired Out of Fear